Writer, California attorney, stumbling through the courtrooms of Southern California
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Nothing on this blog should be considered legal advice.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Legal Definitions - X

[I kind of cheated today. There were
no X legal words I wanted to use, so I'm using “ex” instead. So sue me.]

Ex Parte – Motions, hearings, or
orders which are heard by the court without formal notice to the
opposing party. Ex parte matters are usually temporary orders [like a temporary restraining order or temporary custody] pending a formal hearing,
or an emergency request for a continuance. Most courts require a
diligent attempt to contact the other party or the other party's
lawyer, usually by telephone altho sometimes by overnight mail, to
provide the time and place of the ex parte hearing.

Excusable Neglect - A legitimate excuse
for the failure of a party or lawyer to take required action on time.
This is usually claimed by lawyers asking the court to set aside a default judgment entered against their client because they failed to timely file an answer or to show up at the
hearing/trial. Illness, work overload, staff on vacation or sick or
up-and-quit, mis-calendaring the hearing, or missing the bus/train, are
common excuses which the courts will often accept. The offending
party or attorney must reimburse the other party for its costs and
legal fees incurred because of the error. This is separate from
INexcusable neglect, which is often caused by voluntarily deciding
not to file an answer and/or show up for the hearing/trial. This
frequently happens in the eviction world because the defendant/tenant
filed for bankruptcy, then fails to show up at the trial to let anyone know. However,
if the defendant does NOT inform the court or the plaintiff of the
bankruptcy filing, the plaintiff will be granted judgment [not
knowing about the bankruptcy filing] and then go to the bankruptcy
court and request permission to allow the judgment to stand.
Most of the time, the bankruptcy court will allow this, meaning the
defendant/tenant will be evicted because he stupidly did NOT show up
for trial, which is INexcusable neglect.

Expert Witness - A person who is a
specialist in a subject, who may testify at trial as to his/her
expert opinion without having been an eyewitness in the case.
Examples of expert witnesses are physicians, police officers,
coroners, general contractors, real estate brokers, accountants, and
computer programmers. I make use of real estate agents and brokers
quite frequently to establish reasonable rental value of foreclosed
properties.

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About Me

I took and passed the California Bar Examination back in the dark ages when we chiseled our answers on stone tablets by candlelight while ducking dinosaur feet. My first "job" was as a contract appearance attorney, highlighted in my current work-in-progress [hopefully published one day] tentatively called Not a Mother. After several years, I ran face-first into my mid-life crisis and accepted a real job as a real attorney [read: not self-employed] with a mid-size firm. I was laid off after three years and found a new job with a small California-only firm. I practice law, heavy emphasis on the word practice, as a trial attorney in Southern California. I enjoy being a lawyer and so far I enjoy writing about it.